The Dark Side

Noir reigns supreme in this mystery set on the far side of the Moon. Damien Justus is the new lieutenant in Sin, the major city in billionaire criminal tycoon Fletcher Brass’s colony on Earth’s moon. Settled by fugitives from Earth, Sin is not accustomed to the honest police work and hard-boiled ethics that Justus delivers, though he might be exactly what the city needs. Somebody is assassinating Sin’s elite, and Justus doesn’t yet know lunar politics well enough to suss out the outright lies from mere misdirection. Meanwhile, a homicidal android with delusions of grandeur is taking advantage of a communications blackout to murder his way across the Moon in search of El Dorado, or Oz, or anywhere else he might conquer. The story is rife with morbid humor and tense action that make excellent use of the setting. Some readers might be shocked to find themselves cheering for a killer robot who’s never heard of the Tin Man but wants to be the Wizard; some might wish that O’Neill had omitted the traditional noir mistreatment of female characters. The rest will be too busy chuckling to look below the surface. (July)